Importance Of Health Literacy Essay

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Taking care of our health is an essential portion of our life. In modern world, our healthcare system promotes and expects us as an individual to actively participate in our own health care, actively participate in decision-making, manage chronic conditions, follow up with medical care. Health literacy supports empowerment to take control of our own health. It involves not only the transmission of health information, but means to acquire the knowledge, abilities and needed skills to ensure on that knowledge to maintain health. Patient education that includes self-directing care and empowerment has showed thru the studies to be cost-effective. The knowledge, the skills of analysis, decision making acquired through health literacy, …show more content…

Many organizations and healthcare institutions are active members in improving quality of care thru health literacy. The Joint Commission’s Public Policy Initiative begun in 2001, work at safe quality health care thru increased health literacy. Healthy People 2010 report presents safety and health literacy as a goal. recent national action focus on removing barriers.7 This is reinforced by provisions in the Affordable Care Act and the Plain Writing Act. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality(AHRQ) published the Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, a self-assessment tool to direct quality increase in health literacy in primary care. The toolkit is built on the rules of the universal precautions, to help guide the healthcare professionals to create health materials understandable to the patients. The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy is a policy document to use to improve health literacy. The policy is founded on two values (1) everyone has the right to health information that helps them make informed decisions and (2) health services should be delivered in ways that are understandable and beneficial to health, longevity, and quality of life (Healthy People 2020). Effective communication is a cornerstone of patient safety (The Joint Commission, 2007, p. 5). Health literacy is a factor in engaging patients in preventive care (The Joint Commission, 2007, p. 28). The Joint Commission’s …show more content…

290). Throughout numerous healthcare organizations, e-Health techniques are regarded as vital to the delivery of quality, patient-centred health care. The e -technology can improve patient-physician relationships, to guide aimed questions for greater understanding of health conditions and better management of the health disorders. As per The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services e-Health initiatives will help the health care industry deliver higher quality care and reduce costs. Among the limitations and shortcomings of E-health are the chances of impersonality, e-Health applications might not be user-friendly and commonly available. Patients also need to develop confidence in E-health. Concerns about privacy and security of information have slowed the development of this initiative (McGonigle & Garver Mastrian, 2015, p. 290). It is critical to assure the security of health-related medical records. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is the main Federal laws that protects patient’s health information. The Law requires the organizations that manage health information to have policies and safeguards to protect health information saved on paper or

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